Use OneNote Effectively and Stay Organized

This tutorial will go over several ways to effectively use OneNote to stay organized. This tool will help you keep track of your data in one tool that is like a digital notebook for planning. We will look at an example of how you can structure your OneNote and the types of information you may want to keep organized in one place. One important thing to keep in mind is that there are 3 versions of OneNote, and a few features may not be available depending on which OneNote version you choose to use.
Chapter Markers:
0:00 Mostly Desktop Version of OneNote
0:24 OneNote Structure
1:50 Customize OneNote
3:16 Add your content
5:05 Search by Tags
5:40 OneNote and Outlook Integration
8:18 Copy Text from Picture
8:51 Section Groups (Must create in Desktop app)
9:49 OneNote on the Web
10:46 Password Protect
12:17 Use Links to create a TOC
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[@HeatherMajors]

Hey all, please share you tips for OneNote with the group if you have any. What are your favorite features in OneNote?

[@shushu7574]

I’m just learning OneNote. Wish I had found this video weeks ago. You teach very well. Your process is easy to follow, understand and retain. Thank you very much.

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi, Glad that this video was useful to you. Just and FYI, I saw you note on another comment about some additional ideas. I have written them down (in my OneNote) to see where I can add them into my content plan. As I mentioned in that reply, I do have a 3 week intensive course for most of July so I cannot get to the idea right away. Just wanted you to know I hear you and think your ideas is a good one. Thanks for suggesting it.

[@bitrudder3792]

Love your clear teaching. Also love the tips from Planner Annie on creating calendars and dashboards in OneNote using tables - excellent for visual learners/users, and paper planner enthusiasts. I also love using OneNote for project planning, overview and execution in an older version. Drag and drop and adding tasks to deal with project detours/tweaks. Strategic naming conventions of sections and pages, and addition/removal of checkboxes makes it easy to view/print the tasks that I want to focus on next. This strategy also works well for things like intentional relationship building, coaching, tracking agreements made, etc., giving each person a section or page etc., depending on the complexity of that relationship.

[@HeatherMajors]

Exactly, there are many ways to use OneNote. I agree about strategic naming conventions and not just for OneNote, for all document management. Good naming conventions will help people find what they need quicker, especially in shared OneNote, doc library, etc.

[@sairakhan3051]

Clear and concise. Very, very helpful - thank you!

[@HeatherMajors]

Saria, glad the video was helpful. Wishing you a wonderful weekend.

[@squareggs]

Great tips thanks Heather. One of my many fav features is being able to print a web page or document to OneNote, where I can annotate over it if required.

[@HeatherMajors]

Oh yea, that is a good feature too. Great tip and thanks for sharing 😊

[@glendanascimento1853]

Dude, this is the only video that works. Thanks for posting!

[@HeatherMajors]

No problem! Glad you found it useful.

[@7budfox]

Thanks for this useful video. Ciao dall'Italia

[@HeatherMajors]

Glad it was helpful!

[@berneserainbow1407]

The video is very well done and easy to follow. Thank you. I have several features that I like. 1. OneNote is available on several plattforms, not just Windows. 2. If you save your notebook on OneDrive, which I recommend, it is automatically synchronized with your mobile device. Which means you can work on your notebook whereever you are. (Limited features though, just like with OneNote Web.) 3. You can write a table of content in OneNote and have it make a page for every line in your list with just two simple mouse clicks. At the same time as the pages get created, it will automatically update your table of content with the links to those pages. 4. Section groups, subpages and sub-subpages. Very handy features if you have a lot of content in your notebook.

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi Bernese, you sound like my coworker who thinks everyone should be using OneNote. It is a very useful tool indeed.

[@shushu7574]

I want to learn number 3 and 4. Both of those would be VERY useful to me. Please do a video on #3 if you have not already.

[@HeatherMajors]

@@shushu7574 I do have that for the most part in this video. It is the use Links to create a TOC (Table of Contents) at marker 12:17. Section Groups is 8:51 but I did not talk about sub pages or sub sub pages. I can put that on my content ideas list. However, I am in class all of July so it is not a video I can do quickly.

[@thanhvannguyen1466]

Thanks for your sharing. It's so helpful!

[@HeatherMajors]

Thanh you are so welcome!

[@valchudzinskiRD]

Super helpful ty!

[@HeatherMajors]

Your welcome.

[@kawailulu4645]

very useful video thank you so much

[@HeatherMajors]

You are welcome!

[@debracox9277]

Thank you for this video. Lots of great info here. I've already set some to-dos for myself! I am struggling with how to use onenote more efficiently. I use outlook and tasks and have been setting reminders in onenote. I like to use flags but want to empty my inbox. I was just moving emails to folders. Now I'm using onenote. I am worried I will lose or forget something. Any tips or tricks?

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi Debra, what I do for really important tasks attached to an email is to Pin them to the top of Outlook so they stay at the top of my box until completed. Everything else goes into a folder to keep my inbox clean. If you have a task that is associated with the email you can use the reminder function in To do. Basically, that will give you one of those pop up messages like you get for a meeting letting you know that a task is due. The cool think about setting a date/time for a task in To do is that it will show in the My Day view (outlook on the web) under the tasks tab. I have made it part of my workflow to check this tab daily so I don't forget one of the million things I need to do :)

[@ellie9295]

Thank you! So many great tips. Only bad thing is that now I need to reorganize my whole OneNote 😂

[@HeatherMajors]

LOL, yea my OneNote has been through some iterations. Always good to have choices and then decide what you like best :)

[@ernstgenzs7456]

awesome contents. I sincerely thank you for sharing your knowledge.

[@HeatherMajors]

Glad you like them!

[@valeriemcchesney2790]

I use One Note daily, but you gave me some great ideas!

[@HeatherMajors]

Yea, I am always looking for new ideas too. Glad you found one.

[@michaell7877]

I like your Onenote video. Best one I have seen yet. I would ask if you can use dark mode when filming the videos. So much easier on the eyes. Please move mouse slower or enlarge it with different colors please. Great video. 😊

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi, thanks for your feedback. Since creating this video my editing software now lets me scale up the cursor without it pixelating so that is now standard. I'll be honest though, dark mode is not something I do because of vision issues, it is really hard on my eyes. But I can turn down the white balance a bit for those on the other end of the light spectrum.

[@bernadettemurray9986]

Good excercise

[@HeatherMajors]

Thanks Bernadette.

[@scottabergermd]

Great video, Heather! Thank you. Can you do a Onetastic video, highlighting many of the features, and how they work? New subscriber.

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi, I had not heard about this tool until you mentioned it here. Where I work our environment is not allowed to have any 3rd party add-ins. This may take some research but it is a good idea.

[@scottabergermd]

@@HeatherMajors you cannot imagine some of the macros that Onetastic can do with a click or three….I only wish I knew the program better, because you can customize your own macros using one version of it. Check it out on KZbin, there is some videos on it, which is where I found it. Enjoy.

[@LanceGowens]

I like the fact that I can create a task in OneNote that shows up in my Outlook tasks. However, the link does not open up in my Desktop app. How do I change this?

[@HeatherMajors]

Lance, it it hard to know what the cause may be. I would check to see if your pop up blocker is preventing the window from opening. The second guess is a Microsoft cookie may be missing from your browser which is used to route traffic. They are considered 3rd party cookies so a lot of us turn that off by default. I had to add the MS cookies to an allow list to get some stuff to work. [*.]login.microsoftonline.com [*.]microsoft.com [*.]office.com. Here are the 3 I had to add. Make this choice about cookies at your own discretion.

[@ricdonato4328]

6:37 for us Outlook does not automatically open. We must launch Outlook, only then clicking on Email Page will send the email..

[@HeatherMajors]

I guess it can depend on how your computer set up. It is hard to know given that people can set their own rules and don't get me started on admins. They can make changes that would mean you have to open your outlook first.

[@ricdonato4328]

@@HeatherMajors Good news, clicking the OneNote Email Page icon, it now opens Outlook. Microsoft fixed this issue; it truly comes in very handy. My system is a Dell AIO, running Windows 11.

[@mayanks6728]

Hi, Please help to resolve one problem with "OneNote for Windows 10", i have lots of technical pages in my onenote , but problem occurs when i search string which is on many places on single page , so finding will only point me to first string found and rest are highlighted in yellow color , i have very big pages how can i do FIND NEXT to directly go to the find string instead of scrolling all through the page and also i have lot of important thing highlighted in yellow color (so search string and my highlighted string get mixed up ) , I hope my question is clear and if anyone can help OR its limitation with OneNote sadly ( Even normal notepad has this feature of FIND NEXT button to keep navigating to your string without scrolling ) , Thanks Mayank

[@HeatherMajors]

Hi I think I found what you are looking for on the Microsoft Support page, it says when searching current page move to then next result is keyboard shortcut Enter+F3. Here is a link to the article for more shortcut commands that may help you out. support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/keyboard-shortcuts-in-onenote-44b8b3f4-c274-4bcc-a089-e80fdcc87950

[@michaell7877]

Can you do Onenote for iPad?

[@HeatherMajors]

That is a good idea for me to check out. Thank you for offering your idea.

[@pristinegrace121]

Please please add a feature where we can lock a note so accidental edit will not happen.🙏

[@HeatherMajors]

The best option I know of is to password protect a sheet. I have not found a way to lock notes or have a view only mode as it were. Keep in mind I don't work for Microsoft, I just teach it. Microsoft has a community forum were you maybe able to submit a suggestion to them. If enough people ask for a feature they sometimes work in it. answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum?sort=LastReplyDate&dir=Desc&tab=All&status=all&mod=&modAge=&advFil=&postedAfter=&postedBefore=&threadType=All&isFilterExpanded=false&page=1

[@divya.dharshini15]